The 4 Hour Work Week

Author: Dave Crisp

15 Nov

So many people recommended Timothy Ferriss’ book, The 4 Hour Work Week, I ultimately bought it to avoid a ten-month wait as #250 on the library waiting list. My initial thoughts were largely confirmed.

The one truly useful idea we all ought to be thinking in terms of is… how we can accomplish more in less time. Today’s technology offers opportunities undreamt of in the past to streamline work both within as well as outside organizations. Yet most people still plod in to the office or workplace to do relatively repetitive jobs that don’t seem to change much or accomplish a lot. We seriously need to take a look at alternative approaches to what we’re doing daily and Ferriss certainly presents an authoritative case for one, but only one, variation. While useful to stimulate ideas it’s impossilbe for everyone to use his model nor should most try.

That catchy title is what’s driving book sales. It’s become another of his get rich schemes it appears, though Ferriss insists in interviews (sample here) that he isn’t making a career of this. The other ideas he collects are not a lot to get excited about, though someone probably needed to gather them all into one place as a "state of the times" tale and a challenge to the rest of us to find better ways.

Ferris is a gen X’er who found and applied the ideas hinted at in Dan Pink’s Free Agent Nation and the web resources that seemed to grow out of those ideas, like elance.com and others – virtual assistants ready and willing to help him set up online businesses and similar direct mail-type endeavors that, according to his report, have made him rich – one of "The New Rich" as he defines it.

The book and related web sites such as here contain useful information, particularly if you want to market "stuff," travel the world with your new-found wealth or hire virtual assistants or Free Agents to help you. My sense from other sources is there are lots of virtual agency sites that he could have included, but hasn’t.

His underlying messages form a strange mix, some logical, even insightful, and others distinctly disappointing. You can make millions with little personal time investment… if you happen to hit a lucky idea, are willing to risk some questionable practices and find the right people to do it all for you. Of course, just off the top, it would be impossible for everyone to do this because there’d be no one doing the actual work, no virtual assistants because every one of them would be attempting to find their own virtual assistants to help them become big winners.

I tend to agree with the negative reviews of his book on Amazon, which you can find if you scroll way down this page, but it may be worth skimming just for the fire it lights in every reader to find a better way to think about and reach their goals. If this dubious approach can succeed, surely there must be better ones. This is one I could have "read" in the book store or library in 10 minutes.

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